I really enjoyed reading It All Comes Down to This by Karen English. Although it takes place in 1965 LA, it really resonated with the Black Lives Matter movement this summer in a way that I think middle grade readers will find approachable and authentic. I couldn't put it down and can't wait to recommend it to my 4th and 5th grade students.

Loved this book. It hits an area that's not often covered, and I enjoyed the writing style. We have purchased a copy of the library and I often suggest it to older middle school students looking for a meaty read.

I tried to finish reading this story, but I just couldn’t get through it. The bits of cursing, however mild (bitch), put me off because they don’t belong in a middle grade novel—parents should be able to hand their kid a middle grade book without having to worry about the content.
I also had a hard time with the cadence of some of the characters voices.
The stroy wasn’t horrible, and I’ll maybe try and read it again someday, but it wasn’t for me.

Sophie is 12 yrs old, loves to read and a bit of a loner. Her family has just moved into an upper middle class Los Angeles neighborhood and they are the only black family around. They were the only black family in their last neighborhood also, so Sophie has grown up aware of her differences. The arrival of a new live-in housekeeper, who swiftly explains that Sophie's light brown skin color would cause Africans to kill her on sight, coupled with her older sister's impending departure for college, place new pressures on Sophie. Then her parents' marriage erupts and her sister falls in love with the housekeeper's son despite her mother's best intentions. When will Sophie ever get time to read a good book without interruption? Will she ever make a friend all her own? This is such a wonderful book! Set in 1965, the story is as apt today as the time period in which it is written. Readers can learn much about Sophie's exploration of family, self and time while comparing it to current events. The book is perfect for middle grade readers, especially those with an interest in history and current events. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Definitely not the book for me. Obviously, it's MG, but I don't think that's why I didn't connect with it. I would recommend it to POC. It was just hard for me to relate to anything going on because of my white privilege.

I read this book through Netgalley. It will be published on July 11, 2017. Preorder your copy now.

I am fascinated by historical fiction that takes place in my lifetime. On the one hand, it takes me back to my youth where I can re experience the events I lived through. On the other, novels like this show me this time through the eyes of someone who inhabited a vastly different reality. Because of this, they expand my perceptions so that I experience and understand my own history anew.

Sophie, her older sister, Lily, and their parents live in Los Angeles in 1965. They are a well to do black family who have just moved into a primarily white neighbourhood. Their parent's relationship is tenuous. Both are well educated professionals. Their absent, philandering father is a defence attorney, and their controlling mother runs an art gallery. Sophie has a lot to deal with as she anticipates Lily leaving at the end of the summer to go away to college.

The story begins with the family hiring a new housekeeper, Mrs Baylor. Sophie and Mrs Baylor don't hit it off. Sophie misses their previous housekeeper while Mrs Baylor assumes that Sophie thinks she is better than her because her skin is lighter.

Skin color, and shades of color play a significant role in this novel. Lily passes as white and manages to get a job in a salon that is reputed to not hire colored people. When Lily begins a relationship with Nathan, Mrs Baylor's son, their mother does not approve. She claims that it is because they are too different, but the reality is that Nathan, who is a student at Berkeley, has darker skin. The two continue a clandestine relationship that Sophie keeps secret. Nathan introduces the girls, both advertently and inadvertently, to new ways of looking at themselves in relation to the white world around them. The backdrop of the Watts Riots show them that no matter how well off they are, and where they live, they are not immune to the racism that surrounds them.

Sophie's best friend, Jennifer, is a white girl who lives across the street. She sticks up for Sophie when a group of other white girls reveal their racism. When Jennifer befriends one of these girls, Sophie begins to understand that Jennifer really doesn't understand what life is like for her.

Karen English has created a brilliant cast of complex characters. They are fully realized, nuanced people, flaws and all. She manages to highlight their humanity, no matter what happens. I appreciate that Jennifer and her family try hard to not see skin color as an issue, but that we also understand how impossible this is. It's only in the past few years that I have come to see my own ignorance in claiming to not see this difference.

This is an important coming of age novel. Sophie has a lot to come to terms with: who she is and wants to be, her changing family circumstances, her sister leaving home, and what it means to her be a person of colour. At the same time, it's sure to educate and open the eyes of readers as well.

The best books are those that transform the way you see the world.
This is one of those.
It begs to be paired with The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.

A solid piece of historical fiction for middle grade students that can be eye opening for many.

This is a good book, especially for its target age range. Sophie's an excellent character, with realistic flaws for her age, and the things she experiences are not as explored as other topics in middle grade books.

My 2 middle school age daughters read this from their Kindles and at different points in the story both found something they could relate too. Thank you for introducing us to the character Sophie.

Hey, everyone! Can’t believe I’ve already finished Karen English’s It All Comes Down to This! But it was so easy, since I was really engrossed in it. I could barely bear to put it down! There was just something about it that made it easy to read, even if it was an MG novel, an age group I haven’t read in a while.

First things first, I loved Sophie! She was a breath of fresh air, with her youthful idealism, her insights on everything, from her familial situation to her friends and peers. She had this fanciful way of imagining her life and the lives of others (like her sister or aunt) as stories with a certain structure meant to be played out. It makes me think that Anne from Anne of Green Gables might have been an inspiration behind that, especially when the book appears several times throughout the novel. I love how determined she was in her goals to be a writer/actress. Although the book only documents the summer before she goes to high school, I have a feeling that she would stick to writing; that’s just how passionate she was about it. Readers will definitely love this real depiction of a girl trying to understand the world she’s living in.

As for the plot as a whole, the sad thing is that even though this book is set in the sixties, moments would remind me exactly of 2017, with what’s going on in the world in terms of police brutality and systemic racism. At moments, I would choke up at the unfairness of it all, even as I expected it. And while I probably should expect it for a book set in the sixties, I wish I didn’t have to expect it today. Books like It All Comes Down to This are reminders that while it isn’t as bad as before, we need to do better.

I found this book to be very compelling with interesting characters and an engaging plot.

I'm not sure if the author intended this story to pull on the heartstrings, but I couldn't help but have a little cry at the end of it. Possibly it is a cry for having to leave Sophie to continue her life and not know what happens to her next , or maybe its a cry for Sophie, knowing I leave her to continue her struggles with the prejudice she receives. Who knows, but I'm crying just the same, which is wonderful! I love a book that makes me cry..


I really warmed to Sophie as a character. The author writes in first person, so we understand everything that Sophie is feeling and thinking. Set in 1965, I briefly studied this period of the black civil rights movement in America, so I can understand this period of prejudice history. Sophie takes lots of hits and scrapes, and it made me so sad that she 'accepts' this as normal and is constantly up against it, living in a mostly white neighbourhood. I find myself keep thinking, 'Why!' every time some new slight against her is raised, 'But she is such a good girl!'. Echoed in Mrs Baylor's observation, which also made me blub!


Sophie tries so hard in everything she does -writing, school, friendship. She puts a lot into her relationships especially with her sister Lily, and her only friend Jennifer. She has a thick shell and takes all the knocks along the way, which sometimes boil over into a little release of a cry, before she gets back up and goes on again. There is romance but seen through Sophie's eyes, her troubled sisters relationship with her boyfriend. Sophie lives her life somewhat vicariously through her sister, especially in that of relationships, where she herself, rarely speaks to any boys.


I really enjoyed this book, it fired up so much emotion in me. It made me cross at peoples off handed remarks to Sophie, and made me want to give this girl a big hug. This is a 'coming of age' story, which young adults will love. An excellent novel for parents to share with their children, as there is lots to talk about with them here. I was literally hooked from the first page and I knew I would like this book. The author has a way of inserting you into Sophie's life straight away and sweeping you away immersed until the end. The characters are fantastic, and you really feel you know each one.


I would like to know what happens next to Sophie, but I feel this book works very well as a single book. One which could be read many times..

This book was a great read. Though I did not grow up in the time period Sophie did many of the issues dealt with in this novel resonate today. I identified with her feelings of being an outsider growing up in a mostly white neighborhood. As someone who went to mostly white schools for 12 years I often felt the way she did. There were a couple of times her experiences moved me to tears. I enjoyed reading about Sophie and her sister Lily's experiences with the other girls in the neighborhood and well as the news of the riots. Since it does deal with complex issues like status, race, and affairs I'd recommend it to girls 13 and up.

I really enjoyed this relatable historical novel. Sophie's perspective is interesting because she has been sheltered in some ways from discrimination; it's both powerful and heartbreaking to watch her come to realize that there are opportunities and privileges that people will not give her, simply because of her race. I also love the way English explores Sophie's older sister Lily's romance with a much less sheltered black college boy from Sophie's point of view. This is an engaging story that brings the time of the Watts riots to life for young readers.

I was intrigued by this book because Sophie is growing up in L.A. about the same time that I was growing up in L.A. There are two differences though, she is living in a different part of L.A. and she is black, or as she would say "colored". She lives in an all white neighborhood, but is sort of OK with that. I lived in a mostly white neighborhood, though we had one black neighbor. Our school was a mix of Chinese, White and Hispanic kids. She has a best friend who is white, and they get along just fine. It is the rest of the neighborhood that treats her poorly.

It is an interesting read. I can picture the places she goes to, and feel as though I experienced the same things, with piano lessons, and playing tennis, but I couldn't be in her shoes of being followed around by a clerk because she is black. I could not be the only one in the room accused of stealing, though there are others around. I could not know what it is like to visit the Watts Riots while they are going on, and fear that the police will come after you. But Sophie is there to tell her story so that you can.

Very good narrative, good descrptions of life in the 1960s. This would be a good book to read to get inside the head of a young black girl, to see how she feels and thinks. And you know what? She feels and thinks just as much, with as much pain, as other young girls of different skin colors and backgrounds. She suffers just as much.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

I was not able to access this title because it wasn't Kindle loadable.